2. High on a pillar is a neat table monument to the memory of Mrs. Martha Birch, who died in 1723, in the fiftieth year of her age. The inscription also informs us, that she was daughter to Francis Viner, Esq; and was first married to Francis Millington, Esq; and after his death to Peter Birch, Prebendary of this Abbey; and that she was pious, chaste, and prudent.
3. At a small distance is a plain neat monument, to the memory of Abraham Cowley, on which is placed a flaming urn, begirt with a chaplet of laurel; expressive emblems of the glory he acquired by the spirit of his writings. The Latin inscription and epitaph on the pedestal have been thus translated.
Near this place lies Abraham Cowley, the Pindar, Horace, and Virgil of England; and the delight, ornament, and admiration of this age.
While, sacred bard, far worlds thy works proclaim,
And you survive in an immortal fame,
Here may you bless’d in pleasing quiet lie,
To guard thy urn may hoary Faith stand by;
And all thy favourite tuneful Nine repair
To watch thy dust with a perpetual care.
Sacred for ever may this place be made,